


Gilded Persecution

by matrixrefugee



Category: House of Night - P. C. Cast & Kristin Cast
Genre: Gen, Religious Conflict
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-23 20:11:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18556978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matrixrefugee/pseuds/matrixrefugee
Summary: A young fledgling stands up for her beliefs when a corrupt High Priestess attempts to strong-arm her spiritual course





	Gilded Persecution

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [any, any, holier than thou](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/158349.html?thread=7218061&format=light#cmt7218061) Featuring Neferet and an admitted self-insert. I've had *issues* from the start with House of Night and the way that the fledglings are sort of shoe-horned into following Nyx, or how they fledglings seem to just blithely become Dark Daughters and Sons. My thought was, "What if a fledgling came to the House of Night and just didn't feel called to follow Nyx? How would the high and mighty Neferet handle that?"

"The Dark Daughters were organized to help young Children of the Nyx find their way through the darkness," Neferet said, sitting forward at her desk, hands folded on the blotter, as she eyed the young fledgling sitting before here. "So why do you not wish to join your fellow fledglings?"

Siobhan O'Malley rubbed at the Mark on her forehead and right temple, the crescent moon framed in Celtic knot work that ran down the side of her lean, bespectacled face. "My conscience is telling me I can't join a new religion, when I'd found some solace where I was."

"In a patriarchal religion that denies you the use of your powers as a vampyre?" Neferet asked. "Christianity has been, of all the religious systems among humans, the most cruel toward the children of Nyx."

"Maybe Christians have been cruel, but the Catholic Church has never made any official pronouncements condemning people for being vampyres," Siobhan replied. "If anything, there's a letter from the bishops --"

Neferet waved it off. "Oh, yes, from a group of males who don't know anything about being a vampyre."

"--In which they begged people to accept their vampyre brothers and sisters as fellow children of God, albeit with different skills and different dietary needs," Siobhan replied, patiently.

Neferet smiled a sweet little smile that hinted at sarcasm. "And how effective do you think that little letter will be at changing people's hearts and making them more open to vampires?"

Siobhan drew in a breath, eyes closed and offered the kind of prayer that is not composed of words, but which is more a matter of putting ones present thoughts and feelings into God's hands. Then the words came to her. "Well, there is the parable of the sower: where some of the good seed falls on the sidewalk and gets stomped on, some falls on the rocks and doesn't last for long, and some falls on good soil and bears fruit. I expect there to be people who don't like me, no matter what I am: there's people who didn't like my hair color or my skin color before I was a vampire. What matters is that I keep going on the course that I chose, and I chose to follow Christ up the road to Calvary."

Neferet waved this off. "Yes, yes, pretty words, but can you follow this path which you 'chose'? You're just blindly following some bunch of old men who keep women down."

"If we keep women down, why do we esteem the Virgin Mary so much? And even if Christians haven't always been the kindest to women, it's not like you lot talk much about Nyx's consorts, and when you do, it's like an afterthought," Siobhan replied, calmly. "I've noticed there are a lot more Dark Daughters than Dark Sons here and even when there are Dark Sons, they're pretty much just window dressing at the rituals."

Nefert sighed, exasperated. "You talk a lot, but what do you *really* believe in?"

"You keep dodging me and blowing off what I say: I'm starting to think you don't really believe much in Nyx yourself," Siobhan said, quietly.

That got a response from Nefert. Her eyes narrowed and grew cold, like a serpent's. "You dare to question me? I am your High Priestess."

"I dare to question you, mostly because you're not my High Priestess. I've seen how you handle your followers: You don't let them question your authority, or question why we need to follow Nyx, and then when they do, they get mysteriously transferred to other Houses of Night."

Neferet stood, screeching her chair back. "This has gone on long enough: the way you talk, you sound like a spy planted to harm vampyrekind."

"A spy? Now you're sounding paranoid. What are you, some kind of female Jim Jones with fangs?" Siobhan asked. She had hit a nerve with the High Priestess and she could not resist the temptation to jab at it some more.

"This has gone on long enough. I order you to return to your dormitory room and remain there till you're called for," Neferet snarled.

This did not bode well....


End file.
